


Ticking seconds

by DieAstra



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 10:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18636181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieAstra/pseuds/DieAstra
Summary: This will only make sense if you have seen episode 2x14 "The Road not taken".Spoilers, obviously.A look at the last seconds between Ed and Kelly on the ship.





	Ticking seconds

Side by side they worked frantically at the consoles, diverting every bit of power to the Aronov device. This had to work, it just had to. But it wasn’t enough. The graviton levels still were too low.

LaMarr asked for another 20 percent. Ed finally ordered the bridge for life support energy being transferred as well. Every last bit counted. The effects would not be immediate but still Kelly felt her chest tighten as if she was suffocating. Soon it would become difficult to breathe.

But that was the least of their worries, what with the Kaylon approaching. Their ships would be here long before oxygen ran out.

Then the system started to overload, sparks were flying through the air. In the middle of all this Ed turned around and asked whether she would marry him. He had heard Keyali and her countdown just as well as Kelly had. Yet he asked anyway, and she said yes. What else was she supposed to do? She certainly wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Oh how she regretted having said no all those years ago. She regretted it every single day for the past nine months. And she worked hard on fixing this, making it right. Bringing the whole team together hadn’t been easy, and she had to do it all by herself. She couldn’t trust anyone with the knowledge of a different timeline. She was afraid of being locked away and then nobody would be here to fix it. Nobody but her. She had to do this alone.

Then she suddenly wasn’t alone anymore. She had a team. It was a good team. She had seen them working together on the original Orville, and she was proud to have helped them finding their purpose on her ship. And then they finally found Ed. He had been hard to track down, whenever they thought they had him, he already had left again. Always on the run.

But now he was here, and he was close, and he asked whether she would marry him. Despite hell breaking out.

She could hear explosions at the far end of the ship. Time was up. She pressed her face into his chest. She didn’t want to watch anymore. She hoped that the doctor had gotten away in time. That she would be able to fix it. It all depended on her now. And her younger self.

Ed’s strong arms held her close. She could feel him kissing her hair. They didn’t speak. There was nothing more to say.

She actually could feel his heartbeat. Despite all this it was a strong steady beat. If he felt panic he didn’t allow it to show. He was staying strong, right up till the end. For her.

It was as if time stood still. A life that never would be flashed by. Images of laughing children, a house, a garden, watching the sunset together.

Then a fireball engulfed her. 

Everything went black.

 

The End


End file.
